Saudization of engineering and BIM skills in Saudi Arabia

Saudization of engineering and BIM skills are now the same conversation for most firms in the Kingdom. Engineering quotas have risen twice in two years, and the projects that need BIM, government work and giga-projects, are the ones where Saudi staffing gets the most scrutiny. A firm that can train Saudi engineers into productive BIM roles solves both problems at once.

What do the engineering Saudization rules require?

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD) set the rules in two steps:

When the first step was announced, Gulf News reported in January 2024 that it covered more than 150 engineering job titles and set a minimum salary for a Saudi engineer to count toward the quota. Separately, People Matters reported that engineering technician roles moved to a 30% Saudization rate from 27 July 2025 for firms with five or more technicians.

The detail of which titles count, and how part-time or trainee roles are treated, sits in the ministry's procedural guides. Check them for your own workforce, because the counting rules matter as much as the headline rate.

Why does this matter for BIM teams?

BIM teams are engineering teams. BIM coordinators, MEP modellers, BIM managers and engineers who model are usually employed under engineering job titles, so they count in the quota. The sector is large: according to the Saudi Contractors Authority's 2025 annual report, as cited by Amlak, the construction sector had 365,120 businesses and 4.41 million workers at the end of 2025.

At the same time, demand for BIM is rising. Government projects follow EXPRO's 3D-model deliverables, and giga-project packages set their own BIM requirements. See is BIM mandatory in Saudi Arabia for the detail. Firms need more BIM-capable engineers, and more of them must be Saudi.

Where are Saudi BIM skills being trained?

Several routes have opened in the last few years:

• The Saudi Contractors Authority Academy. The authority's training arm reports more than 56,000 trainees across 80 programmes, covering skills for the contracting sector.
• buildingSMART Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom joined buildingSMART International as a chapter in formation on 30 July 2024, the network's 35th chapter. Nemetschek Group later announced a partnership with the chapter to support openBIM adoption, pilot projects and certification programmes.
• Scholarships. The Ministry of Education's scholarship portal lists a track sponsored by the National Housing Company for an MSc in BIM and Digital Built Environments at the University of Strathclyde, starting January 2026.
• Universities. Saudi universities publish BIM research, from automated code checking to heritage BIM, and their graduates arrive with software skills.

The gap is usually experience rather than software training. A graduate who knows Revit still needs to learn how a coordinated model, a clash cycle and an ISO 19650 workflow run on a live project.

Academic studies have long pointed to skills and policy as barriers. A 2021 KFUPM study found a lack of policy initiatives to enforce BIM in the Kingdom at that time. Policy has moved since then; skills remain the slower part.

How can a firm build a Saudi BIM team?

From our experience running BIM teams in Jeddah, five things shorten the path from graduate to productive engineer:

1. Standards first. A firm-wide BIM standard, templates and naming rules let a new engineer produce usable work from week one. Our BIM standards and ISO 19650 consultancy sets these up for clients' in-house teams.
2. Real projects, small scope. Start new engineers on one discipline in one area of a live project, with a senior reviewer, rather than on training exercises.
3. Coordination meetings. Weekly clash reviews teach more about how buildings fit together than any course. See our guide to clash detection and MEP coordination.
4. Site exposure. Engineers who see their shop drawings installed, or who join a laser-scanning survey, understand tolerances and sequence far better.
5. Accreditation planning. Since the 2026 rule requires Saudi Council of Engineers accreditation, plan each engineer's accreditation into their first year.

Which roles does a BIM team need?

A BIM team is more than modellers. These are the roles we staff on Saudi projects, and the path a graduate engineer can take through them:

Each step up adds responsibility for other people's information, not only your own. That is why experience on live projects matters more than software skill. An engineer who has run a coordination cycle on a hospital or a plant knows what can go wrong in a way no course teaches. For more on that cycle, see LOD 300 vs LOD 400 vs LOD 500 and our clash detection guide.

Should firms outsource BIM or build it in-house?

Most firms do both. They keep BIM management, standards and client-facing coordination in-house, which builds Saudi capability where it counts, and bring in a partner for peaks, specialist modelling or scanning. A partner with a Saudi base and ISO 19650 processes can work inside your standards and your common data environment, so your team keeps control of the information.

AIM United's 250+ engineers work from our Jeddah headquarters across the Kingdom, and 80% of our projects are for returning clients. We deliver BIM modelling and shop drawings and coordination for contractors and owners, and help clients set up their own teams. For the wider market picture, read BIM adoption in Saudi Arabia in 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Written by the AIM United BIM team in Jeddah. AIM United delivers BIM, scan to BIM, digital twins and design-build across Saudi Arabia.